The budget approved Thursday, June 23, 2011 by the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges may contain less money, but at least there are no big surprises.

“The State Board staff gave us preliminary numbers on June 9 for our planning purpose here at Shoreline,” said Daryl Campbell, Vice President for Administrative Services. “The budget they approved on Thursday matched thankfully those preliminary numbers.”

For 2011-12, the total budget for all 34 community and technical colleges is $533.36 million. Shoreline’s slice of that is $18.4 million, the state’s part of the total $37.8 million in revenue expected by the college in the coming year.

Because of the continuing economic issues, the recent state legislative session was stretched out with a special session. That delay upset the timing of budget approvals for the State Board as well as colleges such as Shoreline. On Wednesday, Shoreline’s Board of Trustees went ahead and approved a budget based on the June 9 preliminary figures. At the time, Campbell told the trustees that should anything be substantively different, a budget revision would be brought to them at their regularly scheduled September meeting.

Late Thursday, State Board staff confirmed that the approved budget for the state system includes the same specific college allocations as those shared on June 9.

“The State Board’s action means that now we won’t have to adjust Shoreline's budget, at least for that reason,” Campbell said. “Let’s cross our fingers that the economy continues its slow recovery and there aren’t any other reasons to revisit our budget.”